Remembering D-Day: NJ veterans share their memories 70 years laterEleven D-Day veterans who crossed the English Channel into history shared their memories of the Normandy invasion to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in June 6, 1944. The casualties were heavy – more than 4,000 troops were killed – but the battle helped set the stage for the liberation of France from German occupation. Less than a year after D-Day, Hitler was defeated. Still, the veterans are haunted by the memories of the bloodshed on the beaches and the men who never returned from Normandy. (Lisa Rose/The Star-Ledger)

Arthur Seltzer has a shelf in his home lined with keepsakes from his dark day on Omaha Beach.

There's a glass container of sand, pebbles and stones that he scooped up on June 6, 1944, and carried with him during his journey through Europe and back home to the United States. He has a rock that deflected a bullet and possibly saved his life.

And sometime this morning, he will fly a flag from the balcony of his 18th-floor Cherry Hill apartment to mark the anniversary of D-Day.

More than 150,000 Allied forces crossed the English Channel in the largest sea borne invasion ever launched, landing on the beaches of Normandy to defeat the Nazis. Many never made it to land. They were gunned down in the water or swallowed up by the sea while hundreds of others died on the beach. Those who made it up the hills of blackened sand endured constant pounding by artillery fire.

It began with a treacherous landing on a 50-mile swath of beach in the wake of a storm.

The losses were heavy — 4,000 died during the siege — but the Germans retreated by nightfall. The war in Europe was over less than a year later.

In the years since, tens of thousands of the veterans have died. Many of those remaining are still haunted by the details of that morning, the screams of incoming artillery shells, the smell of burning bodies and the color of the tide stained red with blood.

It is unknown how many D-Day warriors are still living because a large fire four decades ago at a storage facility destroyed millions of Army records listing their service.

In New Jersey, there are at least two dozen veterans still alive who landed in France on June 6, 1944. Some have medals on the mantel and war stories at the ready. Others opt not to attend events, keeping their remembrances private.

Here are the recollections of 11 men who crossed the English Channel into history, confronting Hitler's army in occupied France on a gray morning, 70 years ago today.